manducare

Forms

manducare (first-person singular present mandùco, first-person singular past historic manducài, past participle manducàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian mandicare, Old Italian mandigare and the northern Old Italian mandegare.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mandūcō (“to chew; to eat”), a learned word according to the GDLI and Sabatini–Coletti.^[3][4][5][6] Wiktionary instead calls it inherited, and a doublet of mangiare, manicare and manucare.^[1] The TLIO puts many popular Old Italian forms under the same head, the earliest in the 10th-century Glossary of Monza.^[2]

The everyday word for “to eat” came through Old French mangier (1080), the regular outcome of the Latin verb by way of Vulgar Latin *mandicāre.^[7][8] The Latin verb also lives on in Romanian mînca and Sardinian mandigare.^[8][9]

The Latin verb is formed on mandūcus (“masked figure with champing jaws”), or on the noun for “glutton”, from mandō (“to chew”), as cadūcus is from cadō.^[10][8][11] De Vaan derives this verb from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to stir, whirl”, and Nocentini compares Lithuanian męsti (“to mix”).^[10][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record of the verb, in one of its Old Italian forms, is the Glossary of Monza, of the 10th century, with the sense “to take food, to eat”.^[2] Its first record in the standard form is in Dante, who died in 1321: E come 'l pan per fame si manduca (“And as bread is eaten for hunger”, Inferno 32).^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Dante also used it figuratively, of love that devours: co li denti d'Amor già mi manduca (“with the teeth of Love it already gnaws me”).^[5][12] The TLIO records this pronominal sense “to torment, consume”, and a noun manducare “food” in the Storie de Troia e de Roma (Rome, 1252–1258).^[2]

Old Bible translations used it for eating (Adam, d'ogni pomo di legno del paradiso manduca), and sermons for receiving the Eucharist.^[3][12] DELI reports Contini's view that in Dante mangiare is the plain word and manducare and manicare the expressive ones, though others think this projects modern feeling onto the past.^[7]

By the 19th century it was used almost only in jest, as in the saying Dove si manduca, il ciel ci conduca (“May heaven lead us where there is eating”).^[12] Treccani describes it as now jocular.^[13] D'Annunzio still used it.^[3] DEI records manducazione from the 14th century and manducabile in Baretti.^[14]

Timeline

• 10th century – The Glossary of Monza has the TLIO's first record of the verb.^[2]
• 1252–1258 – The Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma use manducare as a noun.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante writes come 'l pan per fame si manduca.^[5][3]
• 14th century – Manducazione is recorded.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary, archaic, now jocular) To eat: Abbiamo manducato come re.^{[5][6][13][1]}
2. (figurative, archaic) To torment, to consume.^[5][2]

Word family

• manducabile
• manducazione
• manducatorio

Related words

• mangiare
• manicare
• mandibola
• Latin mandūcō

Usage notes

Wiktionary, Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli stress the present on the second syllable (mandùco), while Devoto–Oli has mànduco.^{[1][4][15][6]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 635
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2343
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli